This week our focus was on wooly things. We of course love them wooly things! Pelle’s New Suit is one of our favorite books. I think the kids know it by heart.
For a little field trip for the kids (ahmm… yeah, it was for the kids not me 😉 ) we visited a not too far away spinning shop, The Spinning Loft. So much fiber, so little time.
The kids were fascinated with the wheels and couldn’t understand why I just didn’t buy one on the spot. Like I need more temptation… but I did resist… for now. Fairy fell in love with the Ladybug wheel and Bug liked the little Victoria. Funny but they really do have opinions on the matter. I’m leaning between the Majacraft Pioneer or the Kromski Fantasia myself. I have big birthday wishes.
We did leave with a bag of fiber and a new drop spindle for the kids to use. Fairy took to it like most crafty things, like a fish to water.
And I thought I would share a few wooly things I’ve been working on this week.
Here is a single ply, 110 yard skein of alpaca yarn I just finished on my Ashford drop spindle. The amazingly soft fiber is from North Star Alpacas. I definitely saw some improvement in this skein.
And I tested out dyeing roving with easter egg tablets. It turned out amazing! I can’t wait to start spinning it.
Week Five – Pelle’s New Suit
This week we are working on Week Five of our Harvest Time unit. I will be posting a weekly update to give everyone a space to chat about the program. If you would like more information about the program you can learn more and download the free homeschooling curriculum on our Harvest Time page. All of the directions for the art projects, recipes and activities are included in the curriculum guide. If your family is participating in the Harvest Time curriculum either for homeschooling or after school enrichment we would love to hear about it! Please leave a comment in this post in regards to your experiences with Harvest Time’s Week Five activities. You are welcome, and highly encouraged to leave links to your Harvest Time’s Week Five blog posts or pictures in the comment section of this post.
Harvest Time Week Five
Primary Book: Pelle’s New Suit,
Enrichment Book: How We Use Wool,
Activities: Weaving Project
Field Trip Idea: Yarn Shop,
Art: House of Cards,
Poem: Johnny Appleseed Song,
Flower Fairies: Kingcup Fairy & Coloring Page
Links from Our first time completing the Unit…
Weaving Project
If your family is working on the Harvest Time curriculum either full time or just for some family fun enrichment, you are welcome to add the Harvest Time button on your website. You can save the button to you computer and upload as a photo to your site (you may want to link it back to the Main Harvest Time Page http://weefolkart.com/content/harvest-time-preschoolkindergarten-curriculum) or just copy the green text below and add it to you site.
You might like to look for Something From Nothing by Phoebe Gilman in the library…it is a lovely story of a garment being cut down and cut down to make something new each time…and what the under-the-floor mice get up to with the scraps! It just sprang to mind as complementing this theme, I hope you don’t mind 🙂 Gill.
Looks like a beautiful shop. We don’t have any interesting shops in the area I would like to learn to spin, maybe I should get a drop spindle. I didn’t even know there was such a thing. We are doing the Harvest unit but we are following the weeks the same but we love it. Thanks again, Michelle!
YOur roving turned out beautiful with the Easter egg dyes. How colorfast are they? I’ve never used them beofre to dye anything but I have some handmade felt and for some reason a cupboard full of Easter egg pellets. What do you think?
Nothing came out in the rinse… so I’m guessing pretty colorfast… but of course I haven’t made anything and washed it yet.
Here is what I did…
I soaked the roving for about 20 minutes with a little soap, then rinsed and removed excess water. I then laid out plastic wrap and placed the roving on top. I mixed the egg tablets with the vinegar… following the easter egg directions. I then poured it over the roving, making sure it was all absorbed. I then wrapped up the roving in the plastic wrap and put it in my steamer basket on the stove. I steamed it for 30 minutes. I let it sit in the sink to cool. Once it was room temp I rinsed it. Like I said nothing came out during the rinse. The colors are amazing! Good luck if you try it.
Thank you for the super quick response Michelle. I’m going to give this a try this afternoon. We need a little more rainbows in the house. This will be great. If I ever get my camera back from repairs, I’ll take a photo! Love your blog. You guys rock!
We’re starting Harvest Time next week, since we finally crawled out from under 90 degrees! I’ll be tweaking the schedule to accommodate interlibrary loan, though. And, alas, we don’t have such lovely places to visit here in the swamp as yarn shops! What great pictures!!
That shop looks like a lot of fun! Do you know if they offer hands on classes for kids? I think all three of my kids would enjoy trying this (hmm, or I….).
The owner, Beth, was talking to our wee ones and she told them they should use a drop spindle for a year before moving over to a spinning wheel. She has a 7 year daughter that has just started on a spinning wheel. Fairy really wants to learn how to spin, but today when we were there… Michelle actually went and bought her spinning wheel today… Beth encouraged Fairy to use a drop spindle, which she just got a few days ago.
I know she does offer beginner classes sometimes, and you can even rent a spinning wheel for the duration of the the lessons, which I think runs 3 weeks. Anyway, I suggest you give her a call, and stop in her shop, it really is neat. I’m not sure if she does lessons for children.
You must be a "neighbor" of ours 🙂
We just finished our week in wool. Thank you so much for providing the curriculum. I am having so much fun watching Ava learn and grow. Its amazing. I switched the order of themes in my head so I didn’t have the right books on hand from the library, but luckily we own Goat in the Rug. The book we had was perfect for the week. Whew. Monday we start the tractor theme. After a week with wool (love) I hope I can drum up enthusiasm….
http://ourfamiliesconnect.blogspot.com/
Still going strong!